Professionalizing farmer organizations through private sector-led models: Capacity development initiatives in Cameroon and Côte d’Ivoire

Investing in farmers – or agriculture human capital – is crucial to addressing challenges in our agri-food systems. A global study carried out by the FAO Investment Centre and the International Food Policy Research Institute, with support from the CGIAR Research Programme on Policies, Institutions and Markets and the FAO Research and Extension Unit, looks at agriculture human capital investments, from trends to promising initiatives.

One of the nine featured case studies, funded by the Agribusiness Market Ecosystems Alliance with support from IFAD, explores three private sector-led initiatives focusing on the capacity development of farmer organizations in Côte d’Ivoire and Cameroon. These farmer organizations purchase cocoa or cotton from around 275 000 small producer members and sell to major exporting companies (off-takers). Independent assessments of the farmer organizations linked to the modularized agribusiness leadership training curriculum help make the farmer organizations stronger business partners, posing less risk for off-takers, their members and other value chain actors. With stronger links to markets and services, the farmer organizations can help farmers access finance, inputs and know-how, while also linking them to new productivity enhancing technology. This publication is part of the Country Investment Highlights series under the FAO Investment Centre's Knowledge for Investment (K4I) programme.